The industrialised states of Western Europe are nowadays keen to develop in a sustainable manner, combining economic growth with social justice and improved environment. Within this context, there is need for a transition to a new, efficient and climate-neutral ‘Green Economy’. Read More...

Active in the Carpathians

The Carpathian mountain range is rich in both wildlife and culture. It is Central and South Eastern Europe’s greatest reserve of untouched forest, serving as a refuge for brown bears, wolves, bison, lynx, eagles and some 200 unique plants found nowhere else in the world. It also provides some of the continent’s cleanest streams and supplies of drinking water. Read More...

Preserving Caspian Ecosystems

The Caspian Sea, surrounded by the five coastal countries of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan, is the largest land-locked body of water on earth. Situated in a natural depression, below mean sea level, it receives water from the Volga, Ural and the Kura rivers and numerous other freshwater inputs, but has no outlet to the world’s oceans. The Volga River, the largest in Europe, is the source of 80% of the Caspian’s freshwater inflow. Read More...

Sustainable Farming - Organic Agriculture

For many countries of the world, agriculture is the most important economic sector, with its potential to impact many aspects of sustainability: food security, public and human health, poverty, employment, trade, climate change, the use of natural resources (especially land and water), and biodiversity. Read more...

Fighting Poverty Through Improved Environment

The Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is a joint global UN-led programme that supports country-level efforts to mainstream poverty-environment linkages into national development plans and processes, from policymaking to budgeting, implementation and monitoring. Read More...

Delivering as One

UNEP works closely with other UN agencies like UNECE, UNESCO and UNDP. The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) is a programme document concluded between a government and the UN Country Teams, describing the collective actions and strategies of the UN with the aim to aid national development. The UNDAF includes outcomes, activities and UN agency responsibilities that are agreed by government. Read More...

The industrialised states of Western Europe are nowadays keen to develop in a sustainable manner, combining economic growth with social justice and improved environment. Within this context, there is need for a transition to a new, efficient and climate-neutral ‘Green Economy’. Read More...

Russia: Saving Lake Baikal

Situated in south-east Siberia, the 3.15-million-ha Lake Baikal is the oldest (25 million years) and deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains 20% of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserves. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Read more...

Russia: To the Rescue of River Volga

The Volga is Europe’s longest river and the principal waterway of western Russia. It rises in the Valdai Hills northwest of Moscow and flows 3,530 km southeastward to empty into the Caspian Sea. It is used for power production, irrigation, flood control, and transportation. Out of the twenty largest Russian cities, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage basin. Some of the largest reservoirs in the world can be found along the Volga. Read more...

Russia: Green Olympics in Sochi

The Russian Federation won the bid to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014, in Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea,based on a decision by the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Guatemala in July 2007. UNEP was invited by the Russian Government and the Organizing Committee of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games to provide guidance on the integration of environmental considerations in the preparation and staging of the Games. Read more...